Changing the so-called drinking "culture" of our country's teenagers and young adults will require a change in the drinking habits of the entire community.
We can hardly complain that our young people are over-indulging and causing problems when the rest of the community is doing the same thing. The communitymust lead by example. Binge drinking and drunken misbehaviour must become a bad thing and responsible drinking must become the norm before the cycle can be broken.
Young people go silly when they drink because that's the way alcohol affects them, just as alcohol makes adults of all ages go silly. Just like the rest of us, when they've had too much to drink, young people make stupid decisions, get involved in stupid behaviour and react differently to situations than they would if they were sober.
Teenagers have always indulged in alcohol in this country but there's no doubt alcohol is much more readily accessible these days. Also, adults seem to think nothing of over-indulging in front of children and teens, more young people have their own transport now and thanks to texting and social networking, hundreds of gatecrashers can show up to teen parties, rather than just a few, causing major problems for police and entire neighbourhoods.
It's great that local iwi leaders have recognised that there could be a problem in our community and are stepping in to try to do something about it. First they will try to quantify the issue and then they can look at ways to deal with it.
It's a great start - but it's not just their problem. Society as a whole must step up and deal with this issue. It's not just about teens and young people getting drunk or about parenting, it's also about the attitudes to drinking of all adults and how they conduct themselves when drinking where youngsters are present.
If it becomes unacceptable in a community to behave a certain way, we are more likely to see positive change.
